GoPro exits drone business

Friday, 02 February 2018 03:21
Written by Jason

GoPro has been a company that has been struggling and the Christmas season of 2017 saw their revenues drop 37% year over year and as a result they're making changes. Part of those changes is cutting 20% of their workforce and announcing they're exiting the drone market. GoPro had released their Karma drone a while back and just wasn't able to gain much traction in the crowded drone space and as a result is making a swift exit. Engadget takes a closer look at GoPro and their struggles.

The holidays were not kind to GoPro. The action camera company had already issued an earnings warning in January, dropping its projected Q4 revenues from $470 million to $340 million, that's a 37 percent year-over-year decline. The holidays were so dreadful, in fact, that GoPro has since decided to abandon its drone pursuits and a fifth of its workforce, roughly 300 positions. That said, the company did earn $1.18 billion in 2017, flat year-over-year, and the staff reductions did help drop GoPro's operating expenses by 30 percent, which left the company with $247 million in cash and marketable securities at the end of the year. That's $50 million more than it had on hand at the end of Q3.